Rent strike

Burrell Collection Photo Library

The banners indicate that the demonstration was probably in Partick, one of the most active centres of resistance to the rent increases which many landlords attempted to impose in industrial areas of Glasgow during the early months of the First World War. Although many munitions workers benefited from rising wages during the war, the elderly and the wives of soldiers and sailors were hard pushed by a general rise in the cost of living and were hard pushed to pay increased rents.

The Rent Strike became widespread in 1915, with more than 20,000 tenants refusing to pay the increases by the middle of November. Munitions and shipyard workers began calling lightning strikes in support of rent strikers threatened with eviction. It had become apparent that rising rents were having a serious effect on civilian morale that might spread to the men serving in the armed forces.

In November 1915 the Government passed the Rent and Mortgage Interest (War Restrictions) Act that fixed rents of small dwellings at the level they had stood at on 1 August 1914, three days before Britain entered the war.

Reference: 685.80.208

Reproduced with the permission of Glasgow City Council, Glasgow Museums